Wow! Lunascape Beats Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera**

By | February 5, 2009 | 22 Comments

Here is something for you: a new web browser. Now, before you stop reading about yet another new web browser, please note: this is not a regular one.

So what is Lunascape then?

It’s the world’s first triple engine web browser. Yes, it’s a hybrid. Here is a simple formula:

Trident* (Internet Explorer) + Gecko* (Firefox) + WebKit* (Safari and Chrome) = Lunascape
* – rendering engine

Here are some of the highlights:

100/100 in Acid 3 test

Add-ons (IE and Firefox compatible)
Mouse Gestures
Crash Protection Functionality
RSS News and Blog Info
Popup News
… and much more

And the good news: Alpha 4 was released not so long time ago.

Main New Features in Lunascape5 Genesis Alpha 4

  • The WebKit engine of Lunascape has been improved with the following enhancements.
  • Scored perfect 100/100 at the Acid 3 test (with the WebKit engine)
  • Fixed issues at SSL pages including iGoogle
  • Enhanced font rendering to show characters in the appropriate size for web browsing
  • Fixed crashing errors that occurred on certain conditions

Any cons?

Well, it’s an Alpha 4 release, so you should expect some bugs.
Windows XP/Vista only.
Plugin Center has no data yet

If you are interested in trying it, here is a direct download link.
Visit home page.

Startup

Lunascape Skins

History right after install

Browsing

Update
After playing with it for a while, my excitement faded away. Interface reminds me of Internet Explorer and somehow browsing feels bit sluggish.

Thanks to Charith De Silva for pointing this out.

** According to Lunascape web page

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About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • sigh

    “Lunascape Beats Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera”

    And you based that on blind assertions from said company? You even copy the graphics from their site?

    Yeah, great “journalism” there Vyggie…

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Yes, I decided that from their graph and haven’t tested every web browser myself.

    Well, there are plenty other news sources out there.

    If you hate how I write and what I do (deciding that from your other comments), feel free to skip those articles so they won’t bother you :-)

    Thanks.

  • sigh

    Geez. It should be obvious that they can’t be faster than the actual engines they are borrowing.

    If I told you I can run faster than a high-speed train, would you believe me? I made the claim, and I wouldn’t lie, would I?

  • http://nocontinues.net Tiago Sá

    What exactly is the advantage of a triple engine browser? And disadvantages?

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    sigh,

    Okay, I have contacted them, will see if they reply :-)

    Tiago Sá, well the main advantage is probably no web sites compatibility issues, you just change rendering engine and it works fine.

    But just to let you know, this browser is probably on IE core as the whole navigation, right clicking, history is IE alike.

    As for disadvantages, I think it’s just more stuff in your pc (registry and files size).

  • Cody01

    Ok, let me clear some things out.

    First, Lunascape has been existing for a few years now. It is NOT a new browser! It just happens that it has only been developed for the English language recently.

    Second, the above graphs are based on Lunascape running the Gecko Engine of Firefox 2 (not FF3!). So, how on earth is it possible that FF2 is faster then FF3 or Chrome is beyond me!

    Third, you will go blind if you use the Webkit engine. The rendering of the fonts is so fuzzy you will get a headache. Safari had the same problem and fixed it with its latest version for Windows. Lunascape’s latest version does not solve the problem.

  • DW

    Sleipnir is a dual engine browser and its been around since 2004.

  • mcl

    Latest Sleipnir becomes Plugin about Gecko, and is Trident exclusive use.

    The latest article existed.
    ■The Lunascape Blog (http://lunascapebrowser.blogspot.com/)

    The latest Japanese version of Lunascape was released in Japan on January 27th, boasting breakneck speeds, lower CPU usage, and higher overall stability. In general, over 30 new features and bug fixes were added.

    Do you care about speed? If so, this release is for you. And, yes, you’ll need to be able to read some Japanese, too. But never fear. The global version, meaning the version in English, is right around the corner. You can test the alpha version here. (http://www.lunascape.tv)

    For now, consider this a taste of what’s possible.
    For Javascript, when using the Gecko engine in Lunascape5.0 rc, compared with either Firefox3.1Beta2 or Google Chrome2.0.157.2, Lunascape comes out ahead as shown in the following SunSpider Javascript Benchmark test. The benchmark was conducted on January 23, 2009, Windows Vista Enterprise SP1, HDD 60GB, Intel Celeron M processory 420 (1.60 GHz) with 1GB of memory.

    If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here, talk to us on our Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/lunascape) or through our website, http://www.lunascape.tv

  • http://opera.com Charith De Silva

    All people out there , I told favbrowser about Lunascape browser,
    you should all try it , very very fast.
    There’s new update available.
    Javascript rank one (yay)

    My pleasure favbrowser.com (Vygantas Lipskas)

  • http://opera.com Charith De Silva

    Sigh , check the benchmark test for yourself ,the browser isn’t poular in the western world.

    I checked it , it beat my browsers.

    Sorry if you are Chrome or FF fan but I tell favbrowser.com to write the article , you thought I didn’t check speed for my self .

    Well this is article from cnet.com

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10105896-2.html

    http://www.namln.com/2008/12/lunascape-50-genesis-alpha4-superfast.html

    http://www.linkmatrix.de/open-education-search.php?q=Lunascape

    http://www.topsoftzone.com/program/6843/Lunascape.html

    http://www.fahad.com/2008/11/lunascape-5-alpha-high-speed-all-in-one.html

    http://www.osnews.com/story/20957/Lunascape_5_World_s_First_Hybrid_Engine_Browser/page2/

    Thx all who read this article.

    PLZ Vygantas Lipskas add this links also , thx.

    Well ,well, well , at the end Lunascape won it.

  • http://my.opera.com/aleksod Alexodius

    Yeah, I tried it, it’s a pretty lame browser. It looked good on their website, but after I installed it and tried browsing a bit, it turned out to be a disappointment. Including every possible browser engine out there is not a solution to site compatibility, following standards is.

  • hjhaney

    Excerp from CNET article -
    “The developers claim the browser is faster than all others, thanks to its optimized implementation of Gecko. That may be, if you’re running benchmarks, but I found the alpha version of Lunascape 5 to be very slow to start up and with some user interface quirks that slowed me down. — I wouldn’t recommend Lunascape 5 alpha to anyone in the real world.”
    I’ll stick with Opera

  • mono indeed

    i did some of my own tests opening real web pages, it was latest ff3 vs lunascape with firefox’s machine. Fire =fox was faster each time. I have found that the thing you can do to ff (about:config) can be done to the lunascape so perhaps if you changed it to the same setting ass my ff it would be as fast. cant see how a third party can use an engine faster than the developers.
    Personally i’m happy to use ff3 and use IE8 whenever i have a combatability problem.
    And the constent new updates im am forced to have on my lunascape annoys me- i’ll stick with ff.

  • http://opera.com charith de silva

    Alexodius

    Compatibility , plz acid 3 test is the test that shows , do you follow web standards or not.

    mono, I

    (which Java script test you use )
    don’t know what’s wrong with you Jvascript speed testing becausewhen I’m check is Lunascape brake it’s official speed.

    Anybody feel free to challenge me , I know about Lunascape browser well.

  • Eugene Donaghy

    would like to install it but am on dial up is there any easy way of downloading the plugins and installing them offline

  • Eugene Donaghy

    OOps would like to clarify I would like to add the WebKit and Gecko rendering engines to Lunascape downloading them and then installing offline is there is any easy way of doing this

    Eugene

  • http://discreetadventures.com memoryhoghater

    well all i can say ..the advantage of triple engine = triple memory hog..so no way hosey

  • http://www.villagesalonandnail.com Art

    Thanks for the info I will surely try this lunascape browser and test it  on different websites

  • MaxSteiner

    I’ve just switched to Lunascape 6 after finally having to give up on Firefox (20 crashes in 4 hours isn’t a usable browser experience!).

    Gotta say im very impressed with Lunascape, hasn’t crashed on me yet, and its pretty dang quick!

    (this browser things getting as bitchy as the 8bit format wars if you’re asking me, lots of opera fanatics trying to shit on anything that isn’t their chosen savior :P)

  • MaxSteiner

    And it’s consuming 2/3 of the system resources that the latest firefox was consuming!

    • daddylo

      What layout you use, trident or webkit or gecko ?
      I noticed it used more ram in Webkit ……
      There beta version is out.
      User interfrace needs improvment.

      • MaxSteiner

        Gotta be honest the thing that pisses me off about Lunascape is the fact that it redirects you to their search.
        Really obtrusive and shameface as far as Im concerned.
        (tend to use it in Gecko or webkit, and no matter how much res it used it was always half of the new ‘improved’ firefox :P)

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